According to Infaoliva, prices at origin for extra virgin olive oil, virgin and lampante have fallen to their lowest levels since June 2022, with extra virgin at €3.358 per kilogram, virgin at  €3.092 and lampante at €2.953.

The sharp drop in prices at origin has prompted the Andalusian chapter of Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias, an agricultural cooperative union, to call for the withdrawal of excess olive oil from the market under Article 167 of E.U. Regulation 1308/2013, calling it “absolutely necessary.”

“This is a mandatory olive oil withdrawal mechanism activated in situations of clear risk of market imbalance,” Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias wrote on its website. “It allows for supply regulation without compromising the viability of olive farms, especially the most vulnerable, such as those cultivated using dry land, which occupy more than 70 percent of the surface area.”

However, Juan Vilar, the chief executive of olive oil consultancy Vilcon, said it is still too early to talk about taking olive oil off the market and “negatively affecting price trends.”

“We also don’t know what next year’s production will be; to discuss using a tool that would artificially influence prices, there’s still no justification for that,” he said, anticipating that the announcement could contribute to the downward trend of prices.

According to Vilar, the trigger prices that would engage the current olive oil storage mechanism sit at €1.78 per kilogram of extra virgin, €1.71 per kilogram of virgin and €1.50 per kilogram of lampante olive oil. “Prices still haven’t fallen to those critical stress levels,” he said. 

If it were to be enacted, the current European olive oil storage protocol works through a market-based tender where a producer offers to hold a specific volume of virgin or extra virgin olive oil in a sealed tank for at least 180 days based on a price set by the European Union.

“After those 180 days, the oil returns to the market. And because the producer didn’t flood the market with its olive oil, the producer receives a subsidy, which is also set by the European Union according to the tenders held at that time,” Vilar said. 

“The idea is to immobilize olive oil in the mill in a controlled way so that, by temporarily removing it from the market, it helps slow down the drop in prices,” he added.

For his part, Vilar does not expect the Spanish and European authorities to change the mechanism, so current price levels will not trigger it.

However, Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias Andalusia is concerned that, if olive oil production reaches the optimistic estimate of 1.6 million metric tons in the 2025/26 crop year, then prices will continue to fall.

For many medium and larger producers, prices lower than €3 per kilogram make their operations unprofitable. Smaller producers say that prices below €7 per kilogram are unsustainable, though they usually prioritize quality and sell above market rates anyway.

According to Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Spain has 762,800 tons of olive oil stocks after the first eight months of the 2024/25 crop year, 55 percent more than at the same period last year and eight percent above the four-year average.

Based on current market dynamics, Spain is likely to start the coming 2025/26 crop year on October 1st with olive oil stocks slightly exceeding 400,000 tons, the average of the previous four years.

“The mandatory withdrawal mechanism must be activated when the value of olive oil availability (production, stocks and imports) estimated for the campaign significantly exceeds average outputs (domestic market and exports),” Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias Andalusia wrote.

• Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

However, the fifth-generation winemakers have since expanded into extra-virgin olive oil production and gourmet food exports, maintaining a meticulous dedication to detail that helped propel the wine brand to become one of the world’s most renowned.

“Torres Import was founded in 1978 with the aim of offering the finest food products in Europe,” Magda Martí Vargas, the company’s commercial manager, told Olive Oil Times.

“At that time, it was a gourmet product distributor that, over the years, and given the quality of the estates owned by the Torres family, took the initiative to produce extra virgin olive oils and wine vinegars from our olive trees,” she added.

Torres Import produces olive oil from its grove of centenary and younger olive trees on the Purgatori estate in L’Aranyó, Lleida, about 90 kilometers northwest of Barcelona. 

Since 2017, the export branch of the family company has regularly participated in the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, earning a Gold Award at the 2025 edition for its Eterno brand, a medium-intensity Arbequina. The brand was previously awarded in 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023.

The company has also been awarded for its Purgatori brand in 2021 and 2022, produced from 400-year-old Picudo, Rojal and Farga olives, along with Arbequina.

“For us, it is an honor and privilege to have a Gold Award in recent editions of NYIOOC,” Martí said. “In terms of prestige, people recognize the importance of the competition, and this implies that they are aware of the work and effort involved in continuing to harvest such high-quality oils.”

Catalonia is the fourth-largest olive oil-producing region in Spain, after Andalusia, Castilla-La-Mancha, and Extremadura. However, its olive harvests have been crippled in recent years due to prolonged drought. 

“In Catalonia, we experienced a prolonged drought. The 2022, 2023 and 2024 harvests have been particularly dry throughout the year,” Martí confirmed. “In 2024, a few liters of rain fell in spring, allowing for good ripening in the cooler areas of the estate. We also have a portion of the estate under irrigation.”

According to data from Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Catalan olive oil production fell to 15,233 tons in the 2024/25 crop year, down from 32,717 tons in the previous year.

“Overall, we can say that the harvest was lower than other harvests, and the mill yields were low,” Martí said. “During the harvest period, there were no rainy episodes, allowing the olives to be picked at their optimal ripeness.”

“During the 2024 harvest, the estate’s main challenge has been the accumulated drought in areas without support irrigation,” she added. “Without the spring rains, the desired quality would not have been achieved.”

Indeed, Catalan authorities recently lifted nearly all water restrictions in April as heavy spring rain raised reservoir capacity above the 60 percent threshold.

However, regional officials and Torres Import are mindful that this may be a reprieve and are preparing for a hotter and drier climate in the future.

“Water, as in other areas of the Mediterranean, is a scarce resource,” Martí said. “Climate change poses a significant challenge. Periods of drought are expected to become more frequent, as are summer heat waves. Irrigation will be essential in the future, as will the way we obtain water via storing rainwater, using recycled water and aquifers.”

Despite Spain’s Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food announcing a global goal to bolster production and sell four million metric tons of olive oil annually, Martí does not expect production to increase in Catalonia due to climatic and topographic limitations.

“Catalonia is a small olive oil-producing region compared to other regions in Spain and around the world,” she confirmed. “Its terrain, with numerous mountain ranges, makes it difficult to plant large areas of olive trees. Mechanization can be challenging, so the focus must be on producing unique, high-quality oils.”

As a result, she said Torres Import focuses on producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil, pricing their final product based on the cost of production and paying little attention to the falling olive oil prices at origin in Andalusia, the world’s largest producer by a wide margin. 

“Torres Import always emphasizes product quality; we focus on tastings and product presentation,” Martí said. “We don’t enter the price wars currently in place in the market, as we offer authenticity and quality.”

As the name suggests, a significant part of Torres Import’s business includes exports, especially to the United States. 

Martí said the company had exported the most recent harvest ahead of the implementation of a near-blanket ten percent tariff on imports to the U.S. and would wait to see how the situation changes before making any decisions ahead of the 2025/26 harvest. 

“For now, our importers purchased at the beginning of the harvest and stocked up on product,” she said. “We will see how this affects us in the future; however, we hope everything returns to normal.”

• Euro Weekly News

“Prices for all categories are below the levels of the last two campaigns, with differences in extra virgin olive oil depending on the representative market,” the ministry wrote.

According to its data, extra virgin olive oil prices reached €349 per 100 kilograms in the 21st week of 2025, compared to €797 per 100 kilograms in the same week of 2024 and €606 per 100 kilograms in 2023. Prices for virgin, lampante and refined olive oil have declined by similar margins.

Olive oil prices in Spain increased significantly in 2023 and 2024, primarily due to historically poor harvests and rising production costs.

However, a wet winter and mild spring temperatures resulted in a significant production rebound in the 2024/25 crop year. 

Despite recent developments, there is also a reasonably positive outlook for the upcoming harvest. Both factors are primarily responsible for the dramatic price decline over the past eight months.

Juan Vilar, the chief executive of olive oil and agricultural consultancy Vilcon, highlighted that pricing movements reflect the natural balancing mechanism between supply and demand.

“There has been an almost complete recovery in demand, which had plummeted due to the supply crisis of previous years,” he told Olive Oil Times. “The only mechanism that balances real demand with future supply expectations is pricing, which—when lowered—drives demand upward to absorb available supply.” 

“This trend will continue until demand adjusts to production plus inventory levels, at which point, if supply becomes unsustainable, the only way to stimulate demand would be by reducing prices below the established threshold,” Vilar added.

However, the dramatic decline in prices has left some producers concerned about market manipulation and speculative pricing. 

Spain’s Union of Small Farmers (UPA) and COAG have issued warnings that many producers entering an ‘off year’ in the natural alternate bearing cycle of the olive tree, combined with abnormally high temperatures and the emergence of pests in some areas, could impact the 2025/26 yield.

“The price decline doesn’t reflect market reality,” said Juan Luis Ávila, the head of olive oil at the Coordinating Committee of Farmers and Ranchers’ Organizations (COAG). “We are convinced that there are hidden agreements that are manipulating prices at source to harm farmers and benefit certain intermediaries. We don’t have the resources to prove what’s happening, but the evidence is clear.”

Additionally, UPA Granada secretary-general Nicolás Chica accused certain market operators of spreading overly optimistic projections about the upcoming harvest and driving down prices paid to farmers below the level of their costs.

“We can’t allow intentional messages about the future to be sent when we still have to wait to see how temperatures and the weather in general behave,” he said. “We already have experience from previous campaigns in which climatic anomalies caused us to suffer the worst harvests in history.”

• Olearevista
• Infobae

“We will increase production, open new markets and guarantee the profitability of farmers, the industry and distribution,” he told Expoliva last month.

However, Juan Vilar, the chief executive of agricultural and olive oil consultancy Vilcon, believes this is an optimistic forecast.

He told Olive Oil Times that Spain, which produced 42 percent of the world’s olive oil in the 2024/25 crop year, can currently produce 2.5 million metric tons of olive oil annually. 

To date, Spain’s record-high production total was 1.79 million tons in the 2018/19 crop year, and the world’s largest olive oil producer averaged an annual yield of 1.4 million tons in the five years from 2017/18 to 2021/22.

While Spain could produce more than three million tons of olive oil “without a problem” in ten to 15 years, there are doubts that even with increased production in Portugal and Tunisia, global capacity would reach four million tons by 2040. 

Vilar previously estimated that global olive oil production could reach 4.4 million tons by 2050 and does not doubt that Spanish production could reach four million tons at some point, but this would require increasing efficiency in mills and a shift to more irrigated super-high-density olive groves.

“To reach that level of efficiency, every mill needs a higher level of optimization,” he said.

Indeed, Vilar recently coordinated a study of the Iberian Peninsula’s 2,219 olive mills, including 1,047 registered as social enterprises and 1,172 industrial mills. 

The team of researchers calculated the minimum amount of olives that a mill needs to transform into olive oil to be profitable. In general, every kilogram of olives milled lowers the cost of milling for the campaign, which has seen fixed costs rise steadily.

The researchers found that in years with poor harvests, exemplified by the 2022/23 crop year, 363 mills in Spain and 137 mills in Portugal would be unable to mill enough olives to cover operating costs and be at risk of closing down.

“What will happen? All the small oil mills that don’t have the efficiency will gradually be incorporated or integrated into other larger mills, and ultimately, the number of oil mills will decrease, but their capacity and efficiency will increase,” Vilar said.

“This is leading to a concentration in the countryside,” he added. “Farms are getting larger or are working cooperatively with small farmers. Packers are getting bigger. Distribution is getting bigger, meaning food and other distribution companies are getting bigger.”

Vilar pointed out that the trend is already beginning to unfold, with eight mills in Portugal responsible for milling 46 percent of the country’s olives and the largest mills in Spain transforming 45 times more olives each harvest than the average mill.

He said that small and medium mills must increasingly specialize to stand out by emphasizing quality, diversifying their product portfolio, telling a distinctive story about themselves and focusing on native olive varieties that are not compatible with super-high-density cultivation.

“They must also continue to optimize by-products in an appropriate way and integrate new activities such as oleotourism,” Vilar said.

In the meantime, Planas told Expoliva that a government priority is to guarantee fair prices for farmers and olive growers, who he described as the “weakest link in the chain and must be fairly compensated for their efforts.” 

Planas stated that the role of mills and cooperatives in achieving this goal was fundamental, emphasizing that quality was the key to increasing margins across the entire value chain.

“Our greatest asset is quality; we must continue to focus on it as our hallmark,” Planas said. 

He also emphasized that exporters could not be complacent and continue to promote Spanish olive oil in the more than 150 countries to which it is exported.

“We must defend our position in strategic markets like the United States and open new ones like Mercosur, Japan, Korea, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union,” he said. “The potential is enormous, and we must intensify our promotion.”

• Interempresas
• La Moncloa

The plots, located in Estepa, Andalusia, comprised 440 hectares of olive groves with varying management practices.

C‑Olivar is an operational group based in Andalusia comprising regional and national government agencies, the University of Jaén, the agricultural professionals’ organization ASAJA-Sevilla, the Estepa Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) regulatory body, and Evenor-Tech, a technology company specializing in land management and environmental protection.

The primary objective of the project is to increase the amount of carbon stored by olive groves. To achieve this, the group is tasked with devising a methodology for calculating carbon credits for olive growers, creating a voluntary carbon credit market for the sector, increasing the adoption of olive cultivation practices that favor carbon sequestration and developing technology to assist farmers and technicians in this endeavor.

The analysis evaluated the carbon stored in the permanent structures of the olive trees and in the soil, revealing sequestration ranges of between 0.6 and 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare per annum for trees. 

In six of the 15 plots, additional sequestration of 0.36 to 2.1 tons per hectare was observed in the soil, while in the remaining nine plots, a loss of soil carbon was recorded.

In those plots for which a soil carbon loss was reported, differences in management practices were primarily deemed responsible. These included sparse or absent ground cover and the lack of organic soil conditioning techniques.

Previous research has shown that traditionally managed olive groves store significantly more carbon, and that both ground cover and organic soil conditioning are major contributing factors.

“The application of organic fertilizers and facilitating temporary spontaneous cover crops achieve a positive carbon balance and reduce the negative impacts of olive cultivation,” said Lázuli Fernández from the University of Jaén.

“[Traditional olive groves] allow 5.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent to be removed from the atmosphere for each kilogram of [unpackaged] oil produced,” she added. “In the case of irrigated cultivation, this value drops to 4.3, and the intensive method allows capturing up to 2.7 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent for one kilogram of oil.”

In five of the nine plots for which a soil carbon loss was reported, the carbon accumulated in the trees balanced the loss from the soil. In the remaining four, a net carbon emission was recorded. This again was attributed to management practices.

There are approximately 11.7 million hectares of land dedicated to olive cultivation worldwide, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Portugal. 

If the results from the C‑Olivar analysis were found to be representative, including those plots with a net emission, this would equate to approximately 10.96 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent sequestered per annum.

In their press release, however, the Seville chapter of the Association of Young Farmers and Ranchers (ASAJA-Sevilla) emphasized the need to improve farming practices to increase carbon sequestration, a key project goal. 

If the highest figures from the plots in the study area were replicated, this would raise the global olive grove carbon storage to approximately 55 million tons per year.

“From the Estepa PDO, we continue to work steadfastly to obtain rigorous data that highlight the essential role played by our olive groves as a carbon sink and their ability to mitigate the effects of climate change,” said Moisés Caballero, secretary-general of the Estepa PDO.

“This research is another example of the environmental potential of olive cultivation and encourages us to continue our commitment to a sustainable agricultural model that is committed to the future of the planet,” he concluded.

• ASAJA Seville

A bargain price, considering that the average price of Italian extra virgin olive oil at origin has been fluctuating at double that cost in the last few weeks.

“It is a good price,” Alessandra Rossi, a mother of two, told Olive Oil Times while examining the special discounted offer. “I wonder about quality, though,” she added while looking at the label on the bottles: it indicates that the product does not come from Italian olive trees, as it is a blend sourced from imported extra virgin olive oil.

In a nearby supermarket, another olive oil offer is promoted for the same substantial discount: €4.99 per liter of extra virgin olive oil.

Some pallets and cartons placed in the very center of the shop ensure that all incoming customers are well aware of the ongoing discount.

Offers such as those began appearing since March across the country. Promoted as low-cost offers, such sales are considered legal only when their special-price duration is limited to a handful of days.

As Italian olive oil prices at origin remain stable on the country’s main markets, large retailers promote products from little-known or previously unheard-of brands that carry Italian names.

Still, those extra virgin olive oils are mostly blends sourced through bulk olive oil imports from the Mediterranean Basin.

Spanish, Tunisian, and Turkish olive oil, whose quotations are significantly lower on the main markets, represent the perfect source of olive oil for retailers aiming to entice consumers with super-discounted extra virgin olive oil bottles.

In a country with a substantially stagnant economy and declining olive oil production volumes, supermarkets rely on well-established strategies.

The significant distance between the Italian product’s price at origin and the discounted prices reveals the challenges Italian producers face in staying on the market.

Italian farmers’ associations and other stakeholders in the olive oil production chain, such as the many olive oil mills spread throughout the country, have protested for years against such discounts.

Italian growers and olive oil millers say they cannot compete with those prices.

“Continuous promotions, which we have criticized for a long time, have devalued the product, treating it like any commodity and impacting the entire supply chain, which is forced to operate without fair compensation, particularly in the agricultural sector,” Andrea Carrassi, general director of the national producers association Assitol, told Olive Oil Times in 2024.

Alberto Statti, president of the Calabrian branch of the farmers’ association Confagricoltura, also underlined the hidden risk of such discounted offers in a 2020 interview: “Those offers make consumers believe that extra virgin olive oil comes cheap.”

A well-known study by Maria Lisa Clodoveo warned in 2020 that such discounts could open new space on the Italian market for lower-quality olive oil blends.

“Selling off extra virgin olive oil means to condemn olive groves to extinction, because a culture that does not provide a fair income to the guardians of biodiversity, the olive growers, is a culture with no social, economic or environmental sustainability,” Clodoveo said at the time.

In neighboring Spain, the world’s largest olive oil-producing country, farmers and consumer associations are urging market authorities to investigate the current dynamics of olive oil prices.

In May, the Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organizations (COAG), the national agricultural union, lodged a formal complaint with the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), Spain’s competition authority.

According to the complaint, the prices of olive oil in the market are being artificially manipulated, potentially violating Spain’s competition laws.

COAG’s complaint focuses on a significant discrepancy between the price paid to olive oil producers and the estimated fair market value.

According to COAG, a study conducted by the universities of Jaén and Córdoba, along with the Andalusian Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA), shows that the average price paid to producers is approximately €3.50 per kilogram. In contrast, the fair market value is estimated at €5.55 per kilogram.

COAG noted that the €2 per kilogram gap could result in losses of up to €2.8 billion for olive growers during the current season.

According to the agricultural union, the observed price discrepancies are not justified by production data or market conditions, suggesting possible collusion among market operators to suppress prices.

Should such practices be confirmed, they would violate current competition regulations.

COAG’s initiative follows previous concerns raised by consumer rights organization FACUA-Consumers in Action.

In April, FACUA accused six major supermarket chains of engaging in a “non-aggression pact” by uniformly setting prices for their private-label extra virgin olive oil.

FACUA observed that after one of them reduced its price to €5.55 per liter, the other chains quickly matched this price, raising suspicions of coordinated pricing strategies.

Both organizations are requesting an immediate, comprehensive investigation, which they believe is crucial to protect the entire olive oil production chain.

“Not everyone knows that producing extra virgin olive oils with recognized health-promoting properties is costly, and those who buy low-cost oil should be aware that they are simply purchasing a lipid-based condiment mechanically extracted from a fruit, not a functional food capable of acting as a disease-preventing agent,” Clodoveo wrote in her research in 2020.

“In fact, the reputation of being a ‘powerful healer’ or a ‘nutritional fragrance’ currently applies to only a very small portion of the retail market, accounting for roughly ten percent of the extra virgin olive oils available,” she added.



In the meantime, the discounted olive oils pile up in Rossi’s cart as she approaches the supermarket cashier.

• Huffington Post

The initiative, part of the Andalusian government’s energy transition policy, would involve cutting down about 500,000 centuries-old trees in the provinces of Jaén and Córdoba.

While Andalusian president Juan Manuel Moreno said regional officials would plant 1.5 million new trees across 2,500 hectares, activists and researchers said this figure would cover less than six percent of the carbon dioxide sequestered by the centenarian trees annually.

Research from the Aquae Foundation shows that young olive trees sequester 10 to 30 kilograms of carbon dioxide annually. Separate data from the University of Jaén estimates that centenarian trees absorb about 570 kilograms of carbon dioxide yearly.

As a result, activists from SOS Rural and Campiña Norte Against Solar Megaplants, the groups that collected the signatures, estimated that the government would need to plant almost 30 million new trees to offset the emissions that these trees would no longer absorb.

The protest comes after Campiña Norte Against Solar Megaplants filed a criminal complaint against Greenalia and FRV Arroyadas, two companies developing solar plants, in January. The case is proceeding through the courts.

“It’s contradictory to talk about decarbonization while destroying centuries-old trees, which are the largest natural carbon sinks we have,” Natalia Corbalán, national spokesperson for SOS Rural, told local media.

Campaigners also highlighted the social impact of replacing the olive groves with solar plants, including the loss of traditional jobs harvesting the trees without any obvious replacements.

Campaigners in Lopera allege that a new solar plant covering about 425 hectares would require the removal of 42,000 olive trees.

A report by the La Loperana cooperative estimated that this would result in the loss of about two million kilograms of olives each harvest, which could produce about 400,000 liters of olive oil.

The cooperative calculated that it would lose about €3.1 million in wages and olive oil sales, representing about 25 percent of Lopera’s economy.

The campaigners also alleged that some landowners were forced to lease in unfavorable conditions because the government labeled the projects as public utilities, which allowed them to pursue expropriation proceedings against holdouts.

However, Jorge Paradela, the regional government’s minister of industry, energy and mines, called campaigners’ claims “mistaken and distorted.”

He told Canal Sur Radio that the expansion of renewable energy in Jaén has not come at the expense of the expansion of olive growing.

“In the province of Jaén, there are 4,000 more hectares of olive groves today than there were five years ago,” he said.

Paradela also disputed the campaigners’ estimate about the number of trees removed in the Lópera to make way for the solar plant, indicating it would be closer to 13,000.

• Diario de Seville
• Oleorevista

A wet and mild winter and spring in 2024 provided relief to Spanish producers after consecutive years of high spring temperatures and drought resulted in two historically poor harvests. 

Spain produced 1.41 million metric tons of olive oil in the 2024/25 crop year, significantly more than the 665,800 tons produced in 2022/23 and 852,600 tons the year after.

“Thankfully, this year we recovered production and quality, a very important combination that is allowing us to win back customers who, due to the cost of the last two seasons, had reduced their consumption,” said Rosa López, the company director of Aires de Jaén.

The Andalusian producer earned a fourth consecutive Gold Award for its Consum brand, a medium-intensity blend.  

“For Aires de Jaén, winning an international award, particularly a Gold in New York, is a source of pride and recognition for our work promoting high-quality extra virgin olive oil,” López said. “The teamwork of a highly qualified staff, perfectly ripe fruit and state-of-the-art machinery is allowing us to produce extra virgin olive oil recognized worldwide.”

She added that winning awards at the NYIOOC is especially important for companies seeking to export to the United States.

“The United States is a very important market for Spain; it is the country that imports the most olive oil, and being able to showcase our extra virgin olive oil with an award is important, as the NYIOOC is a very important entry point,” López said.

Elsewhere in Andalusia, producer and bottler Goya en España celebrated three Gold Awards for its Goya Organic, Goya Robusto and Goya Único brands.

“Each campaign is a new challenge, and achieving these types of results confirms that we are on the right path,” said Antonio Carrasco, Goya en España’s general manager. “It’s not just about winning awards, but about reaffirming our commitment to offering a superior quality product to consumers 

Carrasco added that the 2024/25 crop year had been challenging in the company’s main production areas, with the impacts of the prolonged drought and high prices at origin creating a range of challenges for the company.

Off the back of a challenging harvest, Carrasco said winning at international olive oil competitions is especially important, not just for Goya en España but for Spanish producers in general.

“Spain is the world leader in olive oil production, but sometimes that position isn’t clearly reflected in international consumer perceptions of quality,” he said. “Competitions like the NYIOOC are a great help in raising awareness of the level of excellence that many brands, like Goya, bring to the market.” 

“They are an important boost for distributors and consumers and strengthen the image of Spanish extra virgin olive oil as a gourmet, healthy and sustainable product,” Carrasco added.

Overall, producers from the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, the world’s largest olive oil producer by a significant margin, combined to win 60 awards at the World Competition.

In the southeastern Andalusian province of Almería, the team behind OleoAlmanzora celebrated winning its debut World Competition accolade, a Silver Award for a medium Arbequina.

“For us, it’s an honor to have achieved this distinction,” said Sidoro Haro Rubio, head of sales and marketing. “Winning the medals is very important, both in terms of marketing and image in the country where we received them, but also at the provincial level, as we continue to consolidate our product as an image of gourmet quality in Almeria.”

While López said Aires de Jaén had a very good harvest, Haro Rubio admitted that the company’s production was lower than expected in 2024/25.

“The challenges are always many: monitoring the olive grove year-round, ensuring the olive trees have enough food and water, treating the olives well, and during harvesting, remaining faithful to our principles of strict control over the harvesting and processing temperatures, harvesting the fruit very early, being very fast in the milling process and continuing to focus on ensuring the correct temperature,” he said.

Andalusia is responsible for the majority of Spanish olive oil production. Still, farmers, millers and distributors in five of the country’s other regions also celebrated winning World Competition accolades.

Two producers in the Balearic Islands and Extremadura combined to win two awards at the 2025 NYIOOC. Meanwhile, 12 producers and distributors combined to win 17 awards in Catalonia.

Eight producers in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha won ten awards, including Olivapalacios. The Ciudad Real-based company earned two Gold Awards for an Arbequina and a Picual.

“These awards act as an indisputable seal of quality and attract the attention of consumers and distributors; it can also justify a higher price for the product, recognizing the excellence and effort behind it,” export manager Luís Rubio said. 

While he acknowledged that the ongoing drought and a few heat waves at critical moments resulted in increased irrigation and other challenges, Rubio said the company had a very good harvest.

“For us, it was a good harvest; the quality was excellent, and in terms of quantity, there was a slight increase compared to the previous year,” he said.

In northern Spain, three producers in Navarre, including the team at Bodega Nekeas, combined to win four awards.

Spain’s northernmost producer of scale, boasting 215 hectares of olive groves, earned a Gold Award for its endemic Arróniz monovarietal and a Silver for an Arbequina.

“Our olive grove and vineyard are in the Nekeas Valley, the northernmost area in Spain for olive growing,” export manager Carlos Biurrun said. “We are also located at an altitude of 420 to 650 meters, which makes for harsher cold and rain conditions. We believe these very conditions create the unique characteristics that make our oils regularly awarded.”

As a result of the climate and elevation, he said the company’s main challenge is harvesting the Arbequina in early November before the nighttime frost arrives, which can cripple a harvest.

“Interestingly, Arróniz, the native variety, is not sensitive to frost and can be harvested later,” Biurrun said. “I think these awards give good visibility to extra virgin olive oil produced in Navarre, especially to the unknown native variety Arróniz. Navarre has a long tradition of gourmet food production, and extra virgin olive oil is part of Navarre’s rich offering.”

Back in Andalusia, the founder of Villa Gaspar celebrated winning a Gold Award for its medium Picual, its third World Competition recognition since 2022.

“Winning a Gold Award at the NYIOOC was an incredible honor and deeply emotional for us,” José Javier Anguís Horno said. “Receiving such a prestigious recognition validates all the passion, hard work, and care we put into every step of our process. It’s a huge motivation to continue striving for excellence.”

The Úbeda-based producer said the 2024/25 harvest marked a strong recovery after two incredibly challenging seasons.

“We finally saw relief from the prolonged drought, and unlike previous campaigns, we were not impacted by extreme weather events such as the hot Saharan winds that can devastate flowering,” Anguís said. “As a result, both production and quality improved significantly.”

However, he said the campaign came with plenty of challenges, including higher costs for agricultural imports and an ongoing labor shortage, which made it more difficult to harvest quickly and efficiently.

“Looking ahead, we anticipate a weaker or mid-range production due to the natural cycle of the olive tree, known as vecería, where a strong harvest year is often followed by a lighter one,” Anguís said. “While it’s too early to predict the exact outcome, we’re managing the groves carefully and focusing on maintaining tree health and fruit quality.”

Anguís’s Andalusian peers indicated that current conditions make them optimistic, but the summer conditions would play a significant role. 

“We’ve had a rainy winter, and spring is also bringing us very good rain. For now, everything points to the 2025/26 season being better than the 2024/25 season,” López of Aires de Jaén said. “Even so, we have to wait because we are always exposed to adverse weather conditions.”

“Everything looks very good right now, although we have to wait and see because of the climate in Almeria, you never know, and we have to be constantly alert,” Haro Rubio of OleoAlmanzora added. “The flowering is wonderful, so right now we’re very happy with what we see.”

Based on current conditions in the groves outside Andalusia, producers expect another good harvest in 2025/26.

“We anticipate a very good harvest in terms of quantity and quality, considering the current condition of the olive trees,” Rubio of Olivapalacios said.

“The olive grove is doing well. We’ve had a lot of rain since autumn 2024, and it’s continuing,” Biurrun of Bodega Nekeas concluded. “We hope the temperature rises and calms down by June. The flowering season and average temperature will determine the harvest, as there’s usually excess water here (except in 2022).”

The “Action Plan for the Circular Bioeconomy in the Agri-Food Value Chain 2025–2030” is intended to serve as a roadmap for transitioning Andalusia’s agri-food sector into a sustainable, circular and bio-based economy. 

Grounded in European policy and regional legislative frameworks, it focuses on scaling biomass resource use, boosting rural economies and enhancing food system sustainability.

“The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the interdependence of global value chains and the need to accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more digital and resilient economic and industrial model,” the Andalusian government wrote. 

“The repercussions of the war in Ukraine on energy and food markets have led the European Union to seek alternatives and diversify its sources of supply,” it added. “The transition to cleaner energy, driven by the need to combat climate change and reduce dependence on fossil fuels, is also one of the initiatives led by the E.U., which translates into encouraging investment in green and sustainable technologies.”

The plan places significant emphasis on the olive sector, recognizing its economic, cultural and environmental importance to the region. 

Integrating Strategic Objective 6 of the “Andalusian Strategy for the Olive Sector,” approved in February, the plan’s measures include promoting the “bio-based value chain” of olive products, supporting projects that develop new uses for olive-derived residues, such as the Oleacirc project, and fostering a culture of sustainability within the sector.

The Oleacirc project focuses on the business development of successful initiatives in the field of olive byproduct exploitation. Its goal is to improve the sector’s environmental and economic sustainability by identifying feasible business models and scaling up successful technical approaches.

Other projects supported by the plan include GASOLIVE, which focuses on the potential of gasification technologies to convert olive residues into energy and organic fertilizers, and the ORULAND project, which complements it by aiming to reduce waste and emissions from olive oil production processes.

All three projects aim to help olive producers comply with environmental regulations while turning waste streams into profitable resources. As government-led initiatives, the results obtained will also be used to support official decision-making, both at the business and policy implementation levels, to improve the sustainability of the Andalusian olive oil sector.

One of the highlighted objectives of the plan is to stimulate the olive sector’s overall participation in the value chain. This involves facilitating collaborations between olive oil producers and industrial entities that can process subproducts into energy, fertilizers or materials. 

This measure is designed to shift the sector from a linear production model to one in which waste becomes input, thus multiplying the economic impact of the olive industry while reducing its environmental impact.

Another priority is promoting new projects that leverage circular practices. These include the development of new technologies for separating, processing and converting olive waste into commercially viable products. 

This is to be supported by incentives for pilot initiatives, technological adoption and the commercialization of bio-based outputs.

Incentivizing the adoption of more sustainable practices is seen as key to the plan’s success. “One of the mechanisms is to take advantage of innovation opportunities and new opportunities for complementary sources of income,” the Andalusian government wrote.

The plan also includes specific communication and public engagement measures aimed at raising awareness within the olive sector about the opportunities of a circular bioeconomy. 

These measures involve creating tailored communication strategies and educational materials to encourage participation, disseminating successful case studies and integrating sustainability into the sector’s culture and business ethos.

The plan also proposes establishing a regional platform to connect actors across the olive value chain and increase cohesion among producers, processors, researchers, investors, and policymakers. 

A large number of government departments and working groups are already formally linked in this regard. Still, the strategy aims to dramatically increase participation from the private sector, as well as public-private partnerships.

Planas underlined that Madrid has already drafted a detailed economic support plan worth €14.32 billion to mitigate the effects following the initial announcement of the tariffs.

He acknowledged the uncertainty created by the announcement of 20 percent tariffs on April 2nd, which was followed a week later by the temporary application of a ten percent tariff lasting 90 days.

“As a government, we are working to provide direction and certainty,” he said, emphasizing close collaboration with European Union partners to strengthen resilience and empower negotiations with the U.S.

Interestingly, Planas cited the E.U.-Mercosur agreement as an example of market diversification and expansion opportunities for agri-food producers.

The E.U.‘s free-trade agreement with Mercosur is gaining traction across Europe following the announcement of new U.S. tariffs.

According to Planas, crucial Spanish export sectors, such as olive oil and wine, would greatly benefit if E.U. members approved the comprehensive trade agreement with Latin American partners.

However, Rafael Pico, the executive director of the Spanish olive oil industry and export association Asoliva, recently told RTVE that the E.U.-Mercosur agreement would only allow a gradual reduction of tariffs over a 15-year period.

“The Mercosur market is important, but it’s nothing like the United States, neither in terms of volumes nor purchasing power,” he said.

“Per capita income in the United States supports olive oil imports. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for South American countries. There is no viable alternative to the U.S. market,” Pico added.

Regarding overall agri-food exports, Spain’s exposure to the U.S. market is relatively limited.

In 2024, exports to the United States accounted for 4.8 percent of Spain’s total agri-food exports, totaling approximately €4 billion.

By comparison, Spanish agri-food producers exported significantly more to France in 2024: €11.5 billion, which accounts for 15.3 percent of total agri-food exports.

In this context, olive oil represents about 28 percent of all Spanish agri-food exports to the United States.

When it comes to olive oil specifically, the volume of Spanish exports to the United States ranks second only to shipments sent to Italy.

In 2023, Spain’s Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX) in New York estimated that Spanish olive oil shipments represented approximately 41 percent of total U.S. olive oil imports.

According to European Union figures, Spain exported more than 118,000 metric tons of olive oil directly to the U.S. in the 2023/24 crop year.

This figure is expected to increase considerably in the current season due to greater availability and lower prices.

Still, these volumes account only for direct shipments from Spain to the U.S. and do not include Spanish olive oil reaching the U.S. via other countries.

In the 2021/22 crop year, direct exports of Spanish olive oil to the U.S. exceeded 160,000 tons.

“The new tariffs imposed by the United States are unlikely to have any significant impact on the Spanish olive oil sector,” Juan Vilar, a strategic consultant for the olive oil sector, told Olive Oil Times.

According to Vilar, there are several relevant trends to consider, primarily the declining olive oil prices.

“We are at the beginning of a cycle where production exceeds demand. As a result, prices are gradually falling,” he said.

This trend means that Spanish olive oil will become cheaper on the U.S. market.

“American consumers who were paying up to $22 per liter of olive oil over the past two years will now pay perhaps around $17,” Vilar said.

“They will not significantly feel the impact of the tariffs. Ultimately, consumers will still buy olive oil at lower prices than before, even with the full tariff applied,” he added.

According to Vilar, olive oil tariffs should be removed altogether.

“Olive oil is not strategically important for the United States. It is more about consumption, which has grown significantly over recent decades,” he explained.

According to the International Olive Council (IOC), U.S. olive oil consumption in the current season could approach 400,000 tons, surpassing Italy (395,000 tons) and nearing Spain’s consumption (460,000 tons).

“American domestic olive oil production covers only a fraction of this demand, making the U.S. market very attractive for Spanish producers,” Vilar added.

The IOC estimates that U.S. companies produced approximately 13,000 tons annually over the past five years on average.

“Spain is by far the largest olive oil producer in the world. Let’s also consider other EU producers and exporters, such as Italy and Greece, which are major exporters to the U.S. The E.U. will inevitably remain the most important olive oil trading partner for the United States,” Vilar said.

“In such a scenario, the first to bear the cost of tariffs will be U.S. import companies, followed by U.S. consumers, and eventually smaller Spanish exporters lacking bottling facilities in the U.S.,” he added.

Uncertainties remain not only about the tariffs but also regarding their scope. During the previous Trump administration, Spanish bottled olive oil was subject to a 25-percent tariff, while bulk shipments remained unaffected.

“That situation prompted large Spanish producers to establish bottling facilities in the United States,” Vilar noted.

Luis Carlos Valero, manager and spokesperson for the farming association ASAJA Jaén, warned of potential consequences if tariffs were applied to bulk shipments as well.

“If Trump also includes bulk olive oil, he would be shooting himself in the foot, as the entire distribution and bottling industry is located in the United States,” Valero stated.

Vilar explained that of approximately 130,000 tons of olive oil Spain could export to the United States, only around 25,000 tons would be bottled, with the rest shipped in bulk.

Most bottled products would originate from smaller producers without existing bottling facilities in the U.S.

“We need to understand the situation clearly. We are at the start of a new Trump era. Right now, the best move is not to move at all,” Vilar concluded.

The Andalusian producer earned three Gold Awards at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition for a trio of organic monovarietals: Morellana Picual, Morellana Picuda, and Morellana Hojiblanca.

“This is rewarding; it’s a recognition of a job well done,” said Antonio López Figueres and Andrea López Vericat, managing directors and shareholders of Sucesores de Hermanos López.

“For our company, producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil is the most important thing, and winning such awards confirms the level of quality we achieve year after year,” they added.

Since 2015, Sucesores de Hermanos López has won 24 World Olive Oil Competition awards.

Nestled in the Luque municipality of Córdoba province, at the foot of the Sierras Subbéticas Natural Park, the farm was established in the mid-19th century.

“The history of Sucesores de Hermanos López goes back to 1840,” López Figueres and  López Vericat said. “Generation after generation, the López family built an agricultural legacy that culminated in 1919 with the establishment of an olive oil mill.”

That mill was equipped with the most advanced technology of its time, including hydraulic presses and conical stones.

In several Mediterranean olive-growing regions, conical stones replaced traditional wheel-shaped grinders, as they offered a larger grinding surface and higher productivity.

“The consolidation of the estate was carried out by brothers Antonio and Vicente López Jiménez, the fourth generation, who expanded the business until the founding of Sucesores de Hermanos López S.A. in 1978,” López Figueres said.

“At that time, the company already had 600 hectares of traditional olive groves,” he added. “They were mostly rain-fed—an area that has barely changed since the 1950s and still provides the fruit for our extra virgin olive oils.”

The company has always remained under family management. In the 1990s, the old mill was replaced by a two-phase continuous system.

“That’s when the company made a firm commitment to commercializing its products,” López Figueres and López Vericat said.

Today, the company attributes the high quality of its production to its ability to control the entire process.

Over 600 hectares, the Córdoba-based producer manages about 120,000 olive trees.

“The family estate is undergoing constant renovation to adapt to modern harvesting models and, necessarily, to reduce costs,” López Figueres and López Vericat said.

“Since the terrain is a limiting factor, with an average slope of 25 percent, this process is ongoing,” they added. “Today, our groves are roughly split 50–50 between traditional and intensive systems.”

However, the traditional groves are more challenging to maintain, especially since they require intensive manual labor.

“The 2024/25 season has been complicated in this regard. It’s hard to find people willing to work in agriculture, a widespread issue and a major challenge for us,” López Figueres said.

“It’s also increasingly difficult to find specialized workers for key tasks like pruning, which is essential to tree care,” he added.

According to the company, production costs in traditional olive farming are significantly higher than in super-intensive systems, because many tasks cannot be mechanized.

“That means costs can even double or triple compared to super-intensive groves,” López Figueres and López Vericat said.

Additionally, a significant portion of the estate’s olive oil production is organic.

“We began organic production 15 years ago to meet the demands and expectations of our customers,” López Figueres and López Vericat said. “That said, our farming practices have always been environmentally respectful.”

“The biggest challenges of organic farming compared to conventional include higher production costs due to additional tasks such as manual weeding, as well as lower yields per hectare,” they added.

According to the managing directors, market dynamics and higher prices for organic olive oil do not fully compensate for the increased costs.

“Additionally, there is fraud in the market, where non-traceable extra virgin olive oils might be passed off as organic,” López Figueres and López Vericat said. “This increasingly affects the price gap between organic and conventional oils.”

In this context, the past two harvests were disappointing for the company, as they were for most producers in Spain.

“We felt the impact,” López Figueres and López Vericat said. “Being a small family business, this has prevented us from making major investments.” 

“However, we make small improvements and investments every year that allow us to keep progressing both in the fields and at the mill,” they added.

The challenging conditions of the last two seasons have affected olive oil prices on the market and influenced production strategies for many companies.

“The past two seasons, especially 2023/24, saw extremely high prices at origin, levels never seen before, due to historically low yields. This influenced our decisions and we’ve had to adapt,” López Figueres and López Vericat said.

“In the current season, with an average yield and the potential for a good 2025/26 harvest, prices are dropping significantly,” they added.

“Still, it’s important that prices don’t fall back to previous levels. We need to give value to our extra virgin olive oil, and that starts with fair, reasonable prices at origin,” López Figueres and López Vericat warned, echoing recent concerns raised by several regional producers’ organizations.

So far, the 2024/25 season has been meteorologically favorable for Sucesores de Hermanos López.

“We’ve had abundant rainfall, which was much needed after years of drought,” López Figueres and López Vericat said. “We’re now waiting for a good spring in terms of temperatures to allow for good flowering. If so, the 2025/26 season is expected to be a good one.” 

The company sells its olive oils in various formats, including bottles and bag-in-box. Consumer attitudes on what format to choose are still evolving.

“It depends on how they plan to use it. In general, all formats are well-received. The bag-in-box is the newest and has the least demand,” López Figueres and López Vericat said.

Bag-in-box protects olive oil from oxygen contamination during use and shields it from light exposure.

“We try to explain the benefits. It’s a format that, in the medium to long term, will replace PET. International consumers receive it better than domestic ones,” López Figueres and López Vericat said.

In their opinion, raising consumer awareness remains a very challenging task.

“Often, economic factors take precedence for consumers. It’s hard and slow work to educate them about the benefits of extra virgin olive oil,” López Figueres and López Vericat said.

According to the producers, more should be done to improve market control and consumer confidence.

“Tighter market controls by the authorities would help ensure that what’s being sold as extra virgin olive oil truly meets the standard,” López Figueres and López Vericat said.

“Low consumer awareness, combined with reports of widespread fraud in extra virgin olive oil marketing, makes it hard for people to understand and appreciate the true value of these olive oils,” they added.

One way to increase awareness is through oleotourism, a strategy the company has long embraced.

“We offer tourist apartments right in the Subbética Natural Park, and we encourage people to visit,” López Figueres and López Vericat said. “Olive oil tourism is a great way to help people understand how wonderful extra virgin olive oil is made.”

“In this sector, there are challenges and opportunities,” they concluded. “What matters most is to keep moving forward and adapt to change.”

The Milan-based trade association, which publishes weekly agricultural commodity prices, indicated that the average price for European extra virgin olive oil (excluding Italy) is €4,750 per metric ton.

Walter Zanre, the managing director of Filippo Berio UK, told Olive Oil Times that prices at origin across Europe, except for Italy, may keep falling if there is a positive fruit set in Spain later this spring.

“At the beginning of 2022, prices were lower than they are today, which is why I think there’s room for price to come down if there is the prospect of another good crop,” he said.

Filippo Berio’s latest data show that Spain is expected to produce between 1.43 and 1.45 million tons of olive oil in the 2024/25 crop year, the largest harvest since 2021/22 and the second highest since 2018/19.

 ”Tunisia and Turkey are also forecasting big productions, and that is the result of high prices, which have attracted money to the sector,” Zanre said. “Some of the olives that would’ve been destined to table olives have been diverted into the olive oil crushing business because there’s a better return short-term.”

Filippo Berio data further forecasted that Greek olive oil production would reach 280,000 tons, Portugal would harvest 150,000 tons, Morocco’s yield would rebound to 120,000 tons, and Syria would produce 140,000 tons.

Despite the rebound, Zanre said most of the olive oil produced in Turkey and Syria, along with a significant portion of Tunisian and Moroccan production, is destined for Middle Eastern countries. Therefore, this olive oil would have a less substantial impact on European and North American markets compared to Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Greece.

“Global production is coming in at around 3.3 million tons, which is the highest for quite some time and puts everything back into equilibrium,” he added.

The latest data from Spain manifest the return of equilibrium to the olive oil market, where monthly sales have returned to their normal levels before the two historically poor harvests in 2022/23 and 2023/24. 

Olive oil sales reached 110,000 tons in February, “which is where Spain normally is,” Zanre said. “ Last year, Spain had been 60,000 to 70,000 tons a month restricted purely by the availability of oil.”

The next three months will be decisive in determining the future direction of olive oil prices. Whether cooperatives and bottlers sit on replenished stock to last until 2026 or try to move product more quickly will depend on the fruit set in May.

“ At the moment, the co-ops are sitting on just over 880,000 tons, and bottlers’ stocks are at 200,000 tons, the highest since July 2023,” Zanre said. “Bottlers had reduced their stock holdings since olive oil had become so expensive.”

“By the latter part of 2024 into January, everybody was trying to carry no stock because they were expecting the price to come down,” he added. “But bottlers are now back to normal stock levels, which means that the availability problems retailers have seen probably from October to January are now going away.”

While prices at origin have stabilized, Marco De Feo, the vice-president of marketing at Filippo Berio USA, expects some lag time before consumers find lower olive oil prices on the supermarket shelves.

“Even though we’ve seen a drop in raw material costs, we have not seen the full effect of shelf price reduction,” he said. “Supermarkets still have stock at the old price, and it will take time to deplete the current stock—maybe two or three months—and then we might start seeing a price reduction on the shelf.”

In the meantime, Zanre said everyone in the sector is waiting to see how the flowering evolves in Spain. 

Another wet winter means reservoirs have refilled across Andalusia, which is responsible for most Spanish olive oil production. Temperatures in April and May will dictate the 2025/26 crop year’s outcome.

The significant production declines in 2022/23 and 2023/24 were mainly due to extreme heat in May damaging the olive trees as they flowered, which prevented any fruit from setting.

“If there’s a good flowering, then I expect prices to weaken quite considerably,” Zanre said. “If there’s a poor flowering, then we’re back into the good year, bad year cycle, which could force pricing up.”

“But if there’s good flowering, the Spanish crushers will not want to be holding stocks carrying them into next year,” he added.

Lowering prices at origin have made some Spanish producers wary of returning to the situation they found themselves in at the beginning of the decade when prices at origin dropped below the cost of production.

Zanre warned that a bumper harvest in Spain and strong harvests in Italy and elsewhere in the Mediterranean basin could cause prices at origin to fall to similarly low levels.

 ”Spain has production costs of around €2.50 per liter,” he said. “ Anything that gets down towards €2.50 or below becomes a real problem for the industry.”

“Unfortunately, we have a marketplace with no futures,” Zanre added. “You buy and you take delivery which makes it highly speculative.” 

However, the situation is distinct in Italy, where Filippo Berio anticipates production to decline to 200,000 tons in 2024/25. Granaria Milano data indicate that extra virgin olive oil prices in Italy originate at €9,600 per ton.

“I can’t see any reason other than a really good flowering for the Italian price to come down,” Zanre said.

He attributed this year’s production decline in Italy primarily to the olive tree’s natural alternate bearing cycle, with many producers entering an ‘off-year.’ 

However, Zanre added that broader systemic issues in Italy have steadily declined olive oil yields over the past decade.

“There’s declining production in Italy for two reasons,” he said. “One is the Xylella fastidiosa problem in Puglia where they’ve lost six million trees. The other thing is that Italy hasn’t been investing in olive agriculture, unlike Spain, so you’ve got a declining pool of production.”

Zanre pointed to Portugal and Spain, where large producers and private equity have made significant investments to plant new super-high-density groves in the southern regions of Alentejo and Andalusia and develop new milling technology to maximize yield and quality.

“There is a desire in Italy to change that,” he said. “The problem is that it takes five to seven years before an olive tree is producing commercially, and the people with the money don’t want to wait five to seven years.”

As a result, he believes the Italian government will need to spearhead any initiative to revitalize Italian olive oil production. 

Indeed, the government is currently working to implement a National Olive Plan to plant thousands of new groves, fund upgrades to existing mills, and create an interprofessional association to promote the sector. 

In the meantime, Zanre anticipates that olive oil production could continue to rise in Spain. “There is the capacity to exceed two million tons,” he concluded.

The town sits on a plateau, provides stunning views of El Tajo Gorge, and is rich in history. It features one of Spain’s oldest bullfighting rings and the picturesque Moorish quarter, La Ciudad. 

Designed by French architect Philippe Starck, who prefers to be called a creator, LA Almazara honors the cultural heritage of olive oil production in Andalusia. 

The project, initiated by late investor Pedro Gómez de Baeza and LA Organic’s chief executive Santiago Muguiro, took 14 years to complete.

The structure’s exterior showcases a striking red cube resembling a fallen object from the sky. It also features a large eye symbolizing the vigilance of Andalusian surrealist artists. 

Starck approaches all his projects like a film director, crafting narratives to evoke emotions and inspire viewers. LA Almazara reflects this philosophy. 

Starck told Olive Oil Times that his goal was to create a space filled with surprises that engage the senses.

“For LA Almazara, I aimed to translate the Andalusian culture and traditions into a monumental object, where everything is out of scale, and where fertile surprises captivate the eye and stimulate the mind,” he said.

The idea for LA Almazara stemmed from a conversation between Starck and his late friend Perico Gómez de Baeza. They wanted to show the world the value of Spanish organic olive oil. 

“When Perico came to see me 20 years ago, he told me that something seemed strange to him,” Starck recalled. “It was the fact that the number one seller of olive oil in the world is known to be from Italy, but strangely enough, the number one producer of olive oil is Spain.”

Together, they created LA Organic, crafting extra virgin olive oil the same way a cellar master would produce fine wines and winning numerous awards. Gómez de Baeza, who worked for four decades in the financial and investment banking sector, served as the president of LA Organic.

Years after that initial conversation with his friend, Starck finally brought LA Almazara to life.

“At LA Almazara, sustainability is central to our philosophy,” said Jorge Amat, LA Almazara’s marketing executive. “We practice 100-percent organic farming in our olive groves, avoiding synthetic pesticides and fertilizers to maintain soil health and biodiversity.”

Our regenerative agriculture techniques, such as cover cropping and natural composting, enrich the land and reduce water usage,” he added. “We also employ precision irrigation and energy-saving technologies to minimize environmental impact.” 

“By prioritizing organic methods, we produce olives in a chemical-free environment, resulting in purer oils rich in antioxidants that reflect the authentic flavors of our land,” Amat continued. “Our careful handling during harvesting and cold extraction preserves the fruit’s integrity, enhancing the aromas and taste of LA Organic oils.”

At the center of the groves, Starck said he intended LA Almazara to serve as a sanctuary for the sensory experiences entwined in olive oil production and tasting.

“It is a place for contemplation and sensory experience, surrounded by vast olive groves and illuminated by Andalusia’s vibrant and warm light,” he said. “This remarkable environment dictated the level of radicality required for the project. Everything had to be extraordinary, somewhat peculiar and surrealistic.” 

Along with the aesthetics, Starck added that the design is highly conducive to producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil.

“LA Almazara is a wonderfully functional machine in the service and respect of olive oil,” he said. “There is a radical contrast between the inside of LA Almazara, where it is dark and cool, and the outside, with Andalusia’s warmth and dazzling lights.” 

Inside, visitors encounter unexpected artistic elements, such as a half-olive embedded in a rusted steel wall and a metal pipe that penetrates the building. The design plays with light and shadow, featuring a terrace suspended by metal chains. Additionally, the space honors Andalusian culture through a large bullfighting sword and a portrait of a renowned matador.

“LA Almazara is, above all, a functional building that serves the community and humanity by honoring and protecting olive oil,” Starck said. “Yet it is also a great ‘slap in the face’ that awakens, shakes up, enlivens and moves.”

Amat noted that LA Almazara’s team has multiple projects in the pipeline.

“Soon, we will launch exclusive tastings and workshops that delve deeper into olive oil and organic farming,” he said. “We are also expanding our event offerings, transforming LA Almazara into a premier destination for gourmet events, concerts and cultural gatherings.”

“Additionally, we are working on enhancing our visitor experience with new routes through our olive groves and vineyards, as well as immersive activities that connect guests even more deeply with our philosophy of sustainability, nature, and excellence,” he added.

Starck concluded that he had created the mill to become part of humanity’s cultural and architectural heritage.

“Our vision has been and always will be to continue to celebrate the essence, the beauty, and magic of organic olive oil and, through this respect, also our love for us, humans,” he said. “LA Almazara is a place for forever.”

However, its annual report shows that Deoleo lost €54.5 million last year, up from €34.3 million in 2023.

Officials cited the company’s ongoing legal issues, including the litigation facing Italian subsidiary Carapelli Firenze, as the main reason for the losses.

Based on two unfavorable court rulings, the company said it would allocate €64.7 million for back taxes and penalties if the rulings are upheld. Deoleo is waiting for Italy’s Supreme Court to decide whether to take up the case.

The dispute stems from a legal maneuver Carapelli used to import olive oil through a Swiss subsidiary. The oil was later bottled in Italy and re-exported outside the EU.

Switzerland is not a member state but has a free trade agreement with the E.U.

Deoleo said it understood this practice to fall within a European customs law exemption, allowing it to avoid paying tariffs on olive oil imports. However, Italian customs officials disagreed and opened a case against Carapelli in 2014.

Deoleo financial director Enrique Weickert said Italian customs authorities requested the first payment in February.

“The result for the year is very negative, but 90 percent of this result is related to the provision we have made for the litigation in Italy,” he told reporters on a conference call, adding that the company has “very solid arguments” should the Supreme Court decide to hear the case.

Away from the legal issues, Weickert described 2024 as “difficult and complicated.”

The company struggled to source olive oil at the start of the year as olive oil stocks fell close to zero after the second-consecutive poor harvest across Spain and the Mediterranean.

In the year’s second half, the company was impacted by steadily declining prices as many countries in the region prepared for harvest rebounds.

Weickert said olive oil consumption fell by eight percent in Spain and the United States and two percent in Italy in 2024.

However, the company indicated the business was still strong, pointing to a ten percent increase in EBITDA, which reached €33.4 million. EBITDA is a performance metric that helps assess how much profit a business generates from its core operations.

Weickert added that the company achieved its gross unit margin objective of €0.69 per liter due to the “effective” transfer of raw material prices to sales prices.

The company also cited several other positive financial indicators, including a four percent decrease in net financial debt, a 72 percent increase in its cash position and a binding agreement to refinance €160 million of debt in June.

Against the backdrop of renewed tariff threats by United States President Donald J. Trump, Weickert highlighted the U.S. market’s importance to the company.

He said about 38 percent of the company’s EBITDA is generated in the U.S. He emphasized that increased tariffs would “only make the American consumer pay more for a healthy product that comes from the Mediterranean basin.”

Deoleo has already considered ways to minimize the impact of potential tariffs, such as “building an additional stock cushion” and possibly “bottling locally in the United States.”

• Deoleo
• EFE Agro

While this year’s yield will not reach the 1.65 million tons predicted before the harvest started in October, it is significantly more than the 665,800 tons produced in 2022/23 and 852,600 tons the year after.

Spain was poised for a bumper harvest after a wet winter and mild spring temperatures. However, a lack of rain at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, extreme weather events, including hail, and labor shortages resulted in a lower production total.

The southern Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia led the way, with production reaching nearly 981,000 tons by the end of January, shortly before the latest national production data were published. By comparison, Andalusia produced 574,295 tons in the previous crop year.

The most significant increases were in the province of Jaén, where production more than doubled, rising from 205,387 tons in 2023/24 to 469,562 tons by the end of January.

“We still have February and part of March, which could add a few more tons to total production,” said Luis Carlos Valero, manager and spokesperson for the Association of Young Farmers in Jaén (Asaja-Jaén).

Other notable increases were seen in the neighboring provinces of Córdoba (from 150,084 to 245,205 tons) and Granada (55,314 to 105,222 tons).

Spain’s second and third-largest olive oil-producing regions, Castille-La Mancha and Extremadura, also experienced significant production increases.

By the end of January, farmers and millers in Castille-La Mancha produced 130,672 tons compared to 108,620 tons in 2023/24.

Julián Martínez Lizán, the regional agriculture minister, told local media that he expected the harvest to finish “higher than the average of the last decade,” at 140,000 tons.

Meanwhile, production in neighboring Extremadura rose from 68,721 tons in 2023/24 to 76,442 tons in the first four months of the crop year, which began on October 1st.

As a result of the bumper harvest, olive oil stocks have risen to 865,176 tons, and Spanish authorities anticipate that Spain will finish the 2024/25 crop year in September with 295,389 tons.

By comparison, Spain finished January 2024 with 733,900 tons and the 2023/24 crop year with 190,389 tons of olive oil stocks.

The return of an average harvest and recovery of olive oil stocks has resulted in a dramatic decrease in prices at origin with a more gradual decline in supermarket prices.

Data from InfaOliva show that extra virgin olive oil prices have declined substantially from the record-high €8.988 per kilogram in January 2024 to €3.933 at the time of writing.

Similarly, virgin olive oil prices fell from €8.717 to €3.663 per kilogram, while lampante dropped from €8.563 to €3.490.

According to reporting from Las Provincias, prices have also declined for extra virgin olive oils across several major supermarket chains, ranging from a €0.20 drop for a liter to a €0.60 decline for three liters.

Victor Roig, the general manager of Deoleo in Spain, told Las Provincias that he expects production to reach 1.4 million tons in Spain with downward pressure on prices remaining.

“When there is no product, it is reflected in the prices, and then there is, it is noticeable in the very significant drop that is clearly seen on the shelves, and it is the trend that will continue until the next harvest,” he said.

“The logical thing is that we go to the prices of 2021 and 2022, between €3 and €4,” Roig added. “The whole context is positive for both the category and the consumer.”

• Economía Digital Andalucía
• Las Provincias

The practice persists despite being banned in several European Union countries for over a decade.

This ongoing issue prompted Spain’s Interprofessional Olive Oil Organization to launch a new campaign targeting restaurants, consumers and institutions.

“What quality does an anonymous package offer me? What is its best-before date? Who is responsible in the event of a food safety issue? And, most importantly, how can I be sure that it contains extra virgin olive oil and not a blend of other fats?,” Pedro Barato, president of the Interprofessional, wrote in a press statement.

The new campaign, which will run until April, will follow the model of a previous initiative called “#Peeerdona,” widely promoted on television, social media, and other platforms between 2017 and 2018.

Renowned Spanish actress Rossy de Palma was among the celebrities who participated in the campaign’s promotional videos.

The initiative includes new advertisements, outreach efforts, and a series of meetings between the olive oil sector and central and regional governments.

These meetings aim to coordinate a new round of inspections and enforcement actions nationwide.

“There is no doubt that implementing this regulation was a significant step forward. For the first time, hospitality customers could be certain about the product they were consuming,” Barato added.

“We cannot have laws banning this practice while allowing those who ignore them to continue unpunished. We demand that the law be upheld,” he added.

Juan Antonio Tello, manager at Tello Laboratories in Jaén, which specializes in olive oil analysis, noted that fines for the illegal use of refillable containers in restaurants have failed to curb the practice.

“This is a widespread practice. Anonymous packaging offers no guarantee of origin and, therefore, no guarantee of safety,” Tello told Olive Oil Times.

“These factors not only mislead consumers but also eliminate any assurance regarding the quality and safety of the olive oil they consume,” he added.

Some restaurants argue that the added cost of sealed bottles is a key concern.

“The best solution is consumer education, helping them recognize proper presentation and appreciate high-quality extra virgin olive oil,” Tello said. “Without this awareness and appreciation of what they’re being served, progress will be difficult.”

Tello suggested that olive oil advertising campaigns should emphasize the different quality levels of olive oil and their culinary and health benefits.

“It would also be beneficial to have dedicated information points in participating restaurants and bars,” Tello said.

In Italy, olive oil producers from Unaprol, in collaboration with the farmers’ organization Coldiretti, launched an initiative at the start of the new olive season in the fall.

The two organizations announced a new decalogue to help consumers choose quality olive oils and ensure their rights are respected in restaurants.

“The refillable container is forbidden in restaurants. [As customers] we demand that extra virgin olive oil be served in bottled, labeled form, protected by a tamper-proof cap,” they wrote.

Additionally, across the country, several initiatives aim to add value to restaurants that legally promote high-quality extra virgin olive oils and showcase extra virgin olive oil diversity to their customers.

“Since the regulation came into effect, the ICQRF has been conducting specific inspections at food service establishments to ensure compliance with this provision,” officials of the Italian Central Inspectorate of Quality Protection and Fraud Prevention of Agri-food Products (ICQRF) told Olive Oil Times.

The law does not apply to restaurant kitchens in Spain and Italy. The use of olive oil or extra virgin olive oil is instead subject to regulations governing the quality of ingredients used in food preparation.

Portugal, one of the European Union’s major olive oil producers, has banned refillable olive oil bottles since 2005. According to local experts, this change has positively impacted consumer awareness of quality olive oil.

Greece, another major olive oil producer, introduced new regulations in 2013 and has since undergone several updates. However, the response to the law took a different turn.

As a result of these requirements, many restaurants in Greece removed olive oil containers from customer tables altogether.

The project, launched in 2023, seeks to formulate guidelines for olive processing that significantly reduce salt levels. This would reduce effluent contamination while generating a healthier product closer to the World Health Organization (WHO) salt consumption recommendations.

New techniques are being researched and trialed to achieve this goal. The Andalusian regional government plans to publish the results on its website.

At the beginning of December, a series of conferences was held in the municipality of Arahal, Seville, in which the results of tests carried out with olives from the previous season were presented and evaluated.

The main topic of the discussion was the challenges posed by reducing the use of salt during the brining process.

In addition, a tasting session of seasoned olives fermented in low-salt brines was held, allowing the participants to assess the results of various techniques from a consumer’s perspective.

Salt plays an integral role in the production of table olives, with 6.6 metric tons being used per 1,000 tons of olives, serving as a key component of the fermentation and preservation processes.

Fermentation involves managing saline solutions and pH levels to encourage beneficial microbial activity.

The process passes through distinct phases, starting with the initial pH reduction by gram-negative bacteria and culminating in the dominance of lactobacilli, which stabilize the product.

Maintaining proper salt concentrations prevents spoilage, such as the Zapatera effect caused by improper fermentation. This effect is so named because it has a distinctive odor akin to wet shoe leather.

However, its use entails environmental risks, as brine waste is a major pollutant. Industrial discharges have particularly affected the Guadaíra River in Andalusia, resulting in ecological damage such as mass fish deaths and foam pollution. The high salinity and organic load in olive-processing effluents make the industry a focal point for environmental concerns.

Table olives constitute the highest export volume among Spanish preserved vegetable products and the highest volume by domestic consumption.

Table olives contain approximately four grams of salt per 100 grams of product. Current WHO guidelines recommend a daily sodium intake below two grams, the equivalent of five grams of salt.

From a health perspective, this significant sodium content contributes to excessive daily intake, which is associated with hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and other health risks.

With nearly 16.5 percent of Spain’s population experiencing hypertension, reducing sodium in food products such as olives is seen as a public health priority.

Most current techniques for producing reduced-sodium table olives involve partially replacing sodium chloride with alternative salts such as potassium chloride or calcium chloride.

Calcium chloride, in particular, is noted for imparting additional bitterness to an already bitter product.

Given the Spanish population’s widespread and well-established consumption of olives, such defects are widely deemed unacceptable despite the potential environmental and health benefits.

• Junta de Andalucía
• IFAPA
• INIA

Deoleo’s board of directors named Cristóbal Valdés as its new chief executive in September, replacing Ignacio Silva, who was appointed to the role in 2019.

Valdés formally took charge of the company at the end of November, with Silva transitioning into a non-executive role as president and chairman of the board.

“I am honored to join Deoleo as its CEO,” Valdés wrote on LinkedIn. “My vision is clear: to strengthen our market position and remain at the forefront of innovation while prioritizing the well-being and growth of our employees.”

Valdés, who holds a law and economics degree from the University of Deusto and a Master’s in Business Administration from IE Business School, started his professional career as a product manager for the supermarket chain Carrefour.

He continued to climb the corporate ladder, working as an international product director for France-based ADEO Services before becoming the chief executive of maritime logistics firm Bergé Marítima and later the boss of Europe’s second-largest canned food producer, Jealsa.

Valdés currently serves on the board of directors of Meliá Hotels International, providing the seasoned executive with a wide range of pertinent experience for his new position.

While Silva told La Vanguardia earlier this year that Deoleo is in a much stronger financial position than when he was appointed, the company has faced a series of setbacks throughout the second half of 2024.

Silva expects the company to finish the year with about €100 million in debt, down from €572 million in 2018. According to the company, Deoleo recorded an operating profit of €500,000 in the first half of 2024 compared to losses of €10 million in 2023.

However, a recent ruling from an Italian court over a decade-long tax dispute resulted in ratings agency Moody’s downgrading Deoleo’s credit rating amid its effort to refinance €160 million of debt.

In November, a court in Milan ruled that Deoleo must pay €89 million in back taxes and interest for Italian subsidiary Carapelli Firenze SpA’s olive oil imports.

The dispute stems from a legal maneuver employed by Carapelli to import olive oil from outside the European Union through a Swiss subsidiary to be later bottled in Italy and re-exported outside of the E.U.

Switzerland is not a member state but has a free trade agreement with the E.U.

Deoleo said it understood this practice to fall within a European customs law exemption, allowing it to avoid paying tariffs on olive oil imports.

However, Italian customs officials disagreed and opened a case against Carapelli in 2014. Deoleo has appealed the ruling, and the company’s legal advisors are assessing the chances of success to determine how this may affect its finances.

In the meantime, Moody’s downgraded the company’s credit rating from B3, which is “subject to high credit risk,” to Caa1, making it a “bond of poor standing” with a negative outlook. It also downgraded the rating of the €160 million loan, which matures in June 2025.

The Moody’s analyst responsible for the rating said the change “reflects the risks related to the unfavorable ruling received from the Italian court… If this decision is upheld, it has the potential to weaken Deoleo’s financial profile.”

The analyst added that this could complicate Deoleo’s ongoing efforts to refinance its 2025 and 2026 debt maturities, which could have a “material impact on the group’s financial profile and liquidity.”

However, Deoleo said the ruling “has had no impact on the group’s financial operations, which continues to operate its business and meet its commitments as normal.”

The company added that it had notified it notified its two major shareholders, CVC and Alchemy, who remain supportive and expressed confidence in the group’s strategy to refinance the debt.

“Relevant shareholders have expressed their support for Deoleo, and the company’s legal team is working with its advisors to request a stay of execution of the ruling and to appeal it to the Italian Supreme Court,” Deoleo told Spain’s financial regulator.

• Moncloa
• Cinco Días

The significant increase in value came despite Spain exporting 742,500 metric tons, which is only 3,600 more tons of olive oil than the country shipped abroad in 2022/23.

Officials said high olive oil prices were the main driver behind the significant increase in export revenues.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the average price for olive oil exports was €8 per kilogram, 57 percent higher than the average for the previous crop year. Export prices peaked at €8.75 in March.

Italy remained the leading destination for Spanish olive oil exports, followed by the United States, where exports exceeded €1 billion for the first time, France and Portugal.

According to the ministry, virgin and extra virgin olive oil comprised 69 percent of the exports, while refined olive oil made up 29 percent and lampante represented the remaining two percent.

The news of the revenue rebound comes as the 2024/25 crop year shifts into full gear. According to a recent meeting of the Olive Oil Sector Board, production is expected to reach 1.29 million tons, a significant increase from 854,500 tons in 2023/24 and 666,000 tons in 2022/23.

The Olive Oil Sector board attributed the production rebound to “good crop conditions in many of the producing areas, thanks to the rains that have fallen in recent weeks.”

However, it falls significantly below earlier estimates, with producers initially anticipating a harvest between 1.4 to 1.5 million tons as late as October, down from an earlier, even more optimistic forecast of 1.65 million tons.

Producers and officials explained the decline due to some producers reporting lower oil yields and labor difficulties in some traditional and steep slop groves.

As a result of the consecutive years of poor production, olive oil imports to Spain also increased to help bottlers meet demand, rising by 12 percent in volume and 65 percent in value.

Spain imported €1.6 billion of olive oil, paying an average price of €6.60 per liter. Portugal was the country’s leading supplier, shipping 105,876 tons, a 41 percent increase compared to 2022/23, followed by Tunisia with 54,172 tons and Turkey with 21,935 tons, a 13 percent increase.

Regarding the domestic market, the Olive Oil Sector board said olive oil prices at origin have fallen by more than 25 percent since the start of October after hitting record highs during the past two crop years.

According to Infaoliva’s price observatory, extra virgin olive oil prices at origin have fallen to €4.40 per kilogram, down 51 percent from January’s record highs. Virgin and lampante prices have fallen by slightly less, dropping to €4.35 and €4.30, respectively.

The combination of falling prices and more availability means consumption will rise. The Olive Oil Sector Board forecasted olive oil consumption to reach 480,000 tons in the current campaign, 17 percent higher than in 2023/24.

• Agropopular
• Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Featuring some of the country’s most famous comedians, the tour will use the themes of “Humor, Health and Flavor” to promote Spanish olive oils to the domestic market.

Aceites de Oliva de España is well-known internationally for its successful promotional campaigns in emerging markets such as Japan and India.

Its English-language division, Olive Oils from Spain, regularly organizes and participates in major olive oil-related events and conferences in cities such as New York City and Chicago.

Healthy living has always been a key component of the organization’s message, and it is known for its involvement in sporting events such as the international Andalusian Bike Race.

Spanish celebrities are also frequently associated with its campaigns, with tennis legend Rafa Nadal perhaps its most famous brand ambassador.

This latest campaign focuses on the Spanish domestic market, which has been hit hard recently by the cost of living crisis and the soaring price of olive oils.

“Spain is our first consumer in the world, and we must take special care of it,” said Aceites de Oliva de España president Pedro Barato. “With the help of these luxury ambassadors, we want to reach the maximum number of consumers with a positive message. We know from experience that humor is a magnificent lever for promotion.”

“There is nothing like humor to highlight the devotion of Spaniards to a food without which we could not understand our country or gastronomy,” he added. “For that reason, through the Olive Oils from Spain division, we have often resorted to humor for our informational campaigns, starting with Leo Harlem himself.”

Famous for his live stand-up performances and now a rising star among the younger generations due to his millions of TikTok videos, Leo Harlem is an outspoken proponent of extra virgin olive oil.

In a radio interview in August of this year, he stated that “where there is no olive oil, there is no civilization,” a sentiment that resonated with the Spanish public, who have since viewed the clip on social media platforms almost half a million times.

He has also been known to call for extra virgin olive oil to be made available nationally on prescription, saying, “It’s the greatest thing we have here, it’s our health.”

In addition to Leo Harlem, Silvia Abril, Luis Piedrahita, Ana Morgade, Álex Clavero, Eva Hache, Xosé A. Touriñán, David Cepo and Carolina Iglesias will be performing.

Aceites de Oliva de España hopes that the broad inter-generational appeal of the troupe will facilitate the propagation of their message.

The youngest of the country’s potential consumers are among those the organization is most keen to target, as health trends, particularly, are quick to propagate through social media such as TikTok.

As prices continue to fall, recovering lost ground in the domestic market is seen as a significant goal for the Spanish olive oil sector, and it is hoped that establishing a base among young consumers will provide long-term resilience.

• Aceites de Oliva de España